Armin Weiss (or Weiß in German script) (5 November 1927 – 7 December 2010) was a German

inorganic chemist An inorganic compound is typically a chemical compound that lacks carbon–hydrogen bonds⁠that is, a compound that is not an organic compound. The study of inorganic compounds is a subfield of chemistry known as ''inorganic chemistry''. Inorgan ...

and politician of the

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as environmentalism and social justice. Green party platforms typically embrace Social democracy, social democratic economic policies and fo ...

Life

Weiss was born and raised in Stefling (near

Nittenau Nittenau () is a municipality in the district of Schwandorf, in Bavaria, Germany. It is situated on the river Regen, 18 km southeast of Schwandorf, and 24 km northeast of Regensburg Regensburg (historically known in English as Ra ...

), not far from

Wackersdorf Wackersdorf is a municipality in the district of Schwandorf in Bavaria, Germany. It is famous for playing host to rounds of the CIK-FIA Karting European Championship. See also * Wackersdorf nuclear reprocessing plant *Anti-nuclear movement in Germ ...

, where during the 1980s, the

West German West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republic after its capital c ...

nuclear industry began building the

nuclear reprocessing plant Wackersdorf The Wackersdorf nuclear reprocessing plant (, abbreviated WAA Wackersdorf) was a planned Nuclear reprocessing, reprocessing plant in Wackersdorf in Bavaria, Germany. Because of protests, the plant was never completed. Today it is an industrial sit ...

. Upset by this move, Weiss took leave from his position as Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at

Ludwig Maximilians University The Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (simply University of Munich, LMU or LMU Munich; ) is a public university, public research university in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Originally established as the University of Ingolstadt in 1472 by Duke ...

in Munich, and began making public appearances in opposition to the plant. Eventually the construction of Wackersdorf was stopped. Later, as a member of the Bavarian state government, he continued to oppose nuclear plants. In 2007, Professor Weiss received the Nuclear-Free Future Lifetime Achievement Award.

Work

The intercalation in

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolinite, ). Most pure clay minerals are white or light-coloured, but natural clays show a variety of colours from impuriti ...

minerals was major research interest during the start of his academic career.

Urea Urea, also called carbamide (because it is a diamide of carbonic acid), is an organic compound with chemical formula . This amide has two Amine, amino groups (–) joined by a carbonyl functional group (–C(=O)–). It is thus the simplest am ...

has been used as compound for the production of high quality

china China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

for a long time but the mechanism of action was first described by Weiss in 1961.

References

Angewandte Chemie Volume 73, Issue 22 , Pages 736 - 1961 Eine Schichteinschlußverbindung von Kaolinit mit Harnstoff Armin Weiss Angewandte Chemie Volume 75, Issue 16-17 , Pages 755 - 7621963 Ein Geheimnis des chinesischen Porzellans Prof. Dr. Armin Weiss --> {{DEFAULTSORT:Weiss, Armin 1927 births 2010 deaths German anti–nuclear power activists 20th-century German chemists Politicians from Bavaria University of Regensburg alumni University of Würzburg alumni Technische Universität Darmstadt alumni Academic staff of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich Academic staff of Heidelberg University People from Schwandorf (district)